Generics giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NASDAQ: TEVA) simply dwarfs many companies that knock off branded meds. Maybe that's why it's bailing out of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association to go it alone.
"Unfortunately, as it is structured, GPhA cannot appropriately reflect the policy priorities or marketplace realities of Teva," Teva North American CEO William Marth wrote in a letter to the group (as quoted by Dow Jones). So, at the end of June, Teva will pull out of GPhA and mount its own solo lobbying effort.
But GPhA has launched a lobbying push of its own: to win Teva back. As the Wall Street Journal Health Blog reports, GPhA members and its board are trying to come up with a plan that would induce Teva to change its mind. Apparently, Teva has had issues with GPhA's structure and administration for a while. "[I]t is not surprising that they are asking us to take a refreshed look" at those problems, GPhA chief Kathleen Jaeger told the WSJ.
And as the Health Blog points out, GPhA has plenty of incentive to work things out with Teva: organization dues are based on U.S. sales. And as the generics behemoth--with 16.3 percent of all U.S. prescriptions, branded and generic, last year--those dues have to be higher than the fees paid by its rivals.
- read the Dow Jones news (sub. req.)
- check out the post at the WSJ Health Blog